Fernandes sells stake in Caterham

Tony Fernandes has finally brought the curtain down on his troubled ownership of Formula One marque Caterham.

After four and a half years on the F1 grid without a point to their name, and having spent more than £250million on the organisation, Fernandes has sold Caterham to a consortium of Swiss and Middle Eastern investors.

Under the terms of the sale, the team will continue to race as Caterham F1 Team and will remain at their current base in Leafield for the foreseeable future.

The team is to be advised by Colin Kolles, who has previously been involved in F1 with Midland, Spyker, Force India, and most recently was team principal of HRT prior to their closure after three years.

The 46-year-old Romanian has been linked with Forza Rossa, a team from his home country that was recently granted an entry to take their place on the grid in 2015 or 2016.

Former Dutch F1 driver Christijan Albers, assisted by a colleague of Kolles from their time together at HRT in Manfredi Ravetto, is to take over the day-to-day running of the team.

Albers drove for Minardi, Midland and Spyker over three seasons from 2005-07, the latter two working with Kolles, before switching to sportscar racing.

Cyril Abiteboul, who had been working as team principal, has left the team to "pursue new challenges", according to a Caterham statement.

The new management face an uphill struggle given Caterham are rooted to the foot of the constructors' championship and far off the pace of even their closest rivals Marussia.

Speaking about the takeover, Albers said: "We are aware of the huge challenge ahead of us given the fight at the bottom end of the championship.

"Our target now is to aim for 10th place in the 2014 championship.

"We are very committed to the future of the team and we will ensure it has the necessary resources to develop, grow and achieve everything it is capable of."